Tag: Winston S. Churchill

Arts
Plaque placed before the PM’s seat at the conference table, Cabinet War Rooms, London. (Photo by the author)
Safeguarding the Arts: Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

Safeguarding the Arts: Churchill Quotes and Misquotes

"The Arts are essential to any complete national life.... Ill fares the race which fails to salute the arts with the reverence and delight which are their due" (Churchill, April 1938). "No, bury them in caves and cellars. None must go. We are going to beat them" (Churchill, June 1940).

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Bucknell
“The Rival Screevers” (pavement chalk artists). Samuel Hoare: “‘Ullo Mate! So you’ve done an elephant too?” Winston: “Ah! But my composition’s different—an’ I’ve made a lot more of the background.” Hoare and Churchill were on opposite sides over the proposed India Bill granting India more self-government. (Bernard Partridge in “Punch,” 1 November 1933, public domain)
Review: Bucknell University’s Panel on “Churchill, Hero or Colonialist?”

Review: Bucknell University’s Panel on “Churchill, Hero or Colonialist?”

In an age where Churchill is often subject to one-sided discussions by panelists who agree with each other, Bucknell deserves great credit for seeking balance on a fraught subject. Likewise the panelists, Drs. Arnn, McMeekin and Mukerjee, who manage to disagree without rancor, and to acknowledge each other's points of view. The Bucknell program is definitely worth the time of thoughtful readers.

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Gettysburg
“The Treaty of Harper’s Ferry, which was signed between the Union and Confederate States on 6 September 1863, embodied the two fundamental propositions: that the South was independent, and the slaves were free.” —WSC, 1930
Fantasies: Trollope’s Brittanula, Churchill’s Battle of Gettysburg

Fantasies: Trollope’s Brittanula, Churchill’s Battle of Gettysburg

1930: Kaiser Wilhelm II may today occupy "the most splendid situation in Europe." But "let him not forget that he might well have found himself eating the bitter bread of exile, a dethroned sovereign and a broken man loaded with unutterable reproach...if Lee had not won the Battle of Gettysburg."

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Poy
Cover detail from the deluxe edition of “Poy’s Churchill” by Fieldfare, 1954.
Poy (Percy Fearon): The Classic Churchill Cartoonist

Poy (Percy Fearon): The Classic Churchill Cartoonist

"Caricature was the object of all Poy’s work, but he never dipped his pen in vitriol…. He was not unlike a modern Aesop who…drew the simple truth with devastating clearness. Looking at any of his pictures you laugh because of their very rightness. It is only afterwards that you realise the brilliance of the drawing, and are staggered by the genius that created it."

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baths
Churchill’s habits (and the occasional experiences of his secretaries) were well known to the Nazis, who lampooned him in “Illustrerter Beobachter” for June 1941. Translation: “Take this down: In my current situation, I fear German U-boats even less than before.”
“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

“Lousy”: Winston S. Churchill on Baths and Bathtubs

"When Ministers of the Crown speak like this [there is] no need to wonder why they are getting increasingly into bad odour. I had even asked myself whether you, Mr. Speaker, would admit the word LOUSY as a Parliamentary expression in referring to the Administration, provided, of course, it was not intended in a contemptuous sense but purely as one of factual narration."

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crodociles
Crocodile analogies weren’t new to Churchill. In 1798 after the Battle of the Nile at Aboukir Bay, cartoonist James Gillray depicted Nelson (with a club of “British oak”) slaying “Revolutionary Crocodiles” colored with the French Tricolor. The original caption read: “The British hero cleansing the mouth of the Nile.” (Wikimedia Commons)
Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

Crocodiles: Churchill’s Animal Analogies

"[The Bolshevik] crocodiles with master minds entered upon their responsibilities upon November 8 [1917]. Many tears and guttural purrings were employed in inditing the decree of peace.… But the Petrograd wireless stirred the ether in vain. The crocodiles listened attentively for the response; but there was only silence."

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voters
Broadcasting on VE Day, 8 May 1945. (War Office, public domain)
Churchill on Representative Government, and the Voters It Represents

Churchill on Representative Government, and the Voters It Represents

"I see the [Parliament] a living and ruling entity; the swift vehicle of public opinion; the arena—perhaps fortunately the padded arena—of the inevitable class and social conflict; the College from which the Ministers of State are chosen, and hitherto the solid and unfailing foundation of the executive power."

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evacuate
Operation Sea Lion invasion routes. (Italian Wikimedia Commons)
Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

Would the Royal Family and Churchill Had Left if the Germans Invaded?

“Would the Roy­al Fam­i­ly and Chrchill Evac­u­ate?” is excerpt­ed from an arti­cle for the Hills­dale Col­lege Churchill Project. For the orig­i­nal text with end­notes, please click here.

Q: Evacuate the Royals?

I am argu­ing with a per­son in anoth­er forum that there was a plan in the Sec­ond World War to evac­u­ate Churchill and the Roy­al Fam­i­ly to Cana­da if the Nazis invad­ed.  I believe it was called Oper­a­tion Coates, but the ref­er­ence I found doesn’t men­tion Churchill.

Churchill doesn’t seem like the sort of per­son to evac­u­ate. At Sid­ney Street he was in the front line.…

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Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons furnishes a lifelike Neville Chamberlain. (Netflix)
“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

“Munich, The Edge of War,” with Jeremy Irons: Fine Acting, Edgy History

Regardless of whether you like the movie—and Jeremy Irons gives it an authentic, watchable flavor—we know much more about Munich in the light of scholarship since. We know that Soviet Russia was prepared to stand with Czechoslovakia in 1938, and had become a German ally in 1939. We know how—with the help of Czech armaments—Poland was eradicated in three weeks, the Low Countries in eighteen days, France in six weeks. If resisting Hitler was so ludicrous an idea in 1938, what was there about fighting him in 1939-40 that made it preferable? Given what we know, we are obliged to consider Churchill’s opinion—which was, characteristically, far from baseless.

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RML Books

Richard Langworth’s Most Popular Books & eBooks


Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality

Churchill by Himself

Churchill in His Own Words

Churchill and the Avoidable War

The Definitive Wit of Winston Churchill

The Patriot’s Churchill

Triumph Cars - The Complete Story
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